Two years later he went to Rouen in the company of his father's friend Pierre Hély (né Peter O'Hely, 1652–1731, former French consul to the Canaries).

In 1723 he moved to London to complete his studies, with the result that he mastered Greek, Latin, French, and English just as well as his native tongue (Spanish).

Afterward he returned to Tenerife, but finding there his father dead and his academic talents unusable, left again in 1724 for Madrid,[2]: 3  where he obtained the protection of the Scottish Jesuit Guillermo Clarke [es], confessor of Philip V. In April 1729 he was appointed clerk (escribiente) of the recently formed Biblioteca Real under chief librarian Juan Ferreras — a minor post, but one which at least justified his continued residence at court.

In January 1732 he was promoted to librarian (bibliotecario de asiento), a post sufficient to allow him to devote himself fully to his literary and philological pursuits.

He also composed a Paleografía griega and a Bibliotheca graeca, in which he catalogued more than 50 Greek codices originally produced by the copyist Constantine Lascaris and now held in the Biblioteca Real.

He also composed 140 epigrams, of which he leaves us the following definition: A la abeja semejante, para que cause placer, el epigrama ha de ser pequeño, dulce y punzante.